She Is Looking at Me Through the Wood — As I Lay Dying

She was under the apple tree and Darl and I go across the moon, Vardaman says, and the cat jumps down and runs and we can hear her inside the wood. Put your ear close, Darl says. Vardaman hears her but cannot tell what she is saying. She's talking to God, Darl says. She wants Him to hide her away from the sight of man so she can lay down her life. She's turned over, Vardaman says. She's looking at me through the wood.

Darl leads him to Cash, sick in his leg again after they fixed it that afternoon. They pour water and Cash says I feel fine and I'm obliged to you. And I saw something Dewey Dell told me not to tell nobody, Vardaman says twice. It is not about pa and it is not about Cash and it is not about Jewel and it is not about Dewey Dell and it is not about me.

On the back porch pallet they lie half in moon white and half in black while Vardaman still plans to find where buzzards stay at night. Pa and Jewel and Darl and Mr Gillespie's boy carry her down to the barn, the moon shining flat and quiet on her. I can smell her, Vardaman says, and the wind's changed. Then he goes to find where they stay at night and saw something Dewey Dell told him not to tell nobody. Will Darl run toward Gillespie's barn when the loft catches fire?